osman hamdi bey

Osman Hamdi Bey, (1842 İstanbul - 24 February 1910 İstanbul) was a prominent and pioneering Turkish painter. Born into a family of the ruling class of the Ottoman Empire (he was the son of İbrahim Ethem Paşa, a former sadrazam), he went to primary school in the popular İstanbul quarter of Beşiktaş, after which he studied law, first in İstanbul as of 1856, and then in Paris as of 1860. During his nine years in Paris, the international capital of arts, he showed a keen interest for the artistic events of his day. As aside his studies in law, he took up courses in painting in the workshops of a number of well-known painters. Once back in Turkey (1869), he has been assigned to the foreign relations department of the Ottoman province of Baghdad. In 1871, he was back in İstanbul, where he was made the vice-director of the Protocol Office of the Palace. During the 1870's, he worked at several assignments in the upper echelons of the Ottoman bureaucracy.